$20-Million Ransom Wins Release of Kidnapped German

Kidnappers released a wealthy Hamburg businessman unharmed after his family paid about $20 million, the biggest ransom in German criminal history, police said Saturday.

Jan Philipp Reemtsma, former owner of Germany’s second-largest cigarette firm, was set free Friday, a month after he was kidnapped at his home on the outskirts of Hamburg.

Police imposed a news blackout after the March 25 kidnapping, fearing that media coverage could endanger Reemtsma’s safety. Meanwhile, his family and friends placed newspaper ads and drove hundreds of miles in a desperate effort to arrange his release.

Investigators said they believed there were at least three kidnappers, who communicated with their captive in English and used a car with what appeared to be foreign plates.

“The main aim of the police operation was to protect Reemtsma’s life. With his release, this aim had been achieved,” said Wolfgang Sielaff, head of the Hamburg criminal investigation office.

Reemtsma, 43, was released just south of Hamburg on Friday night. He made his way to a nearby house. Police collected him from there and took him to a secret location for debriefing.

Family friends had dropped off the ransom--in a mixture of Swiss francs and German marks--Thursday on an autobahn near Krefeld, a city near the Dutch border about 150 miles from Hamburg.

It was the third attempt to make the payment. The first try, by Reemtsma’s wife and a lawyer, failed because of what police called imprecise instructions from the kidnappers. The second time they were told to go first to Luxembourg, then to a spot near Trier in western Germany, to drop off the money, but it was never picked up.

Reemtsma was kept in chains in the cellar of a house but said he had been well treated. Police said they believed the cellar was about an hour’s drive from Reemtsma’s home.

Reemtsma’s grandfather founded what became one of Germany’s largest food and tobacco companies, bearing the family name.

Reemtsma sold his majority stake in the business in 1980 for about $200 million to devote himself to literary and social causes.